Spring
by Wilona Riva
Summary: Jack looked upwards at the sun beginning its downward slant to the mountains. Soon MiM would awaken and they would have a new companion.
1. Chosen

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_The first five chapters of this fic take place 3 years prior to the events in ROTG movie, which places Danny at 11 yrs old, Jack at 17 yrs old, and Jamie at 7 yrs old. From chapter six on, the story shifts to a year after the events of the movie. Day and Leto hid, while MiM prevented Daniel from crossing over the world barrier until a week after the movie's events. Chapter 17 of **Feathers and Dust** needs to be read prior to reading chapter six of this story, as you will not understand what will be going on when we get to that point in time._

* * *

**Chosen**

* * *

Seven years old Jamie Bennett was busy shoveling the snow off the driveway, so his mother could go to work. Looking up, he sometimes wished that the story of Jack Frost was real. Who wouldn't have loved to have a good old snowball fight about now? He shivered slightly as hot, cold, and cool flashes ran past him. He could make out blurry forms out of the corner of his eyes, but turned and saw no one. Sighing, he picked up the shovel and returned to his work.

"I think the boy sensed us, Jack," Leto said, as Wind drove her onwards. "Where are we going anyway?"

"After 300 years, that would be really nice," Jack mused. "I was so alone before MiM woke you up." He looked down at the town below and the boy shoveling the boardwalk. "Poor kid, having to work on a gorgeous day like this."

"Yeah, it'd be more fun if he could see or hear us," Day said, catching up to them. "We're headed to the lake, aren't we?"

"Yeah, Red," Jack told her. "MiM told me that Spring would awaken soon."

"Three hundred years of silence," Leto grumbled, "he tells you no more than your name and purpose. Now, he's really chatting all of a sudden. Man in the Moon sure is strange."

Jack froze, his frosted blue hoodie pulled over his blue eyes and looked askance at the two girls at his side. Autumn and Summer were both girls roughly two years younger than him. Autumn was petite with auburn hair pulled into a ponytail and sparkling green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a worn-out long-sleeved gray t-shirt and a brown plaid skirt. Summer wore her dark-hair really short, her amethyst eyes framed by dark, sooty lashes. Today, she was wearing a white daisy trimmed dress, dark green leggings, and a silver charm bracelet she'd found somewhere in her travels around the globe.

None of them, he noted, wore shoes-not that he was complaining.

Wind gently descended around them, pulling toward the earth and the lake. Beneath one of the old gnarled trees, Jack spotted a sleeping black-haired boy wearing lavender pajamas with white buttons and a pair of gray socks. He was about the age of the boy who'd been shoveling the walkway.

Jack looked upwards at the sun beginning its downward slant to the mountains. Soon MiM would awaken and they would have a new companion.

* * *

"Sam, have you or Tucker seen Danny at all today?" a panick-stricken Madeline Fenton asked the two eleven years old children, who just walked into the kitchen.

"No, Mrs. F," Tucker said, sharing a worried glance with the girl beside him. "He didn't show up at school today. Is he sick?"

"I'm still saying it was ghosts!" Jack Fenton's voice wafted up from the basement.

Sam hid a smile. What she loved about the Fentons was their blind-sided obsession with all things supernatural, especially ghosts. Danny, himself, loved reading stories about spirits and bigfoot. He often imagined what it would be like if he were a ghost, which promptly freaked him out when he realized what his parents would do to him if they ever caught him if he turned into one.

"It wasn't ghosts," Maddie shot back. "Jack, honestly, why does everything you think about have to revolve around fudge or ghosts?"

Sam signalled to Tucker that they needed to slip upstairs to talk to Jazz, Danny's older sister by two years. Danny was really close to her, not that he'd ever admit it. Knocking on the door with the mad scientist teddy bears, they heard Jazz call for them to enter.

She'd been crying off-and-on, they could tell right away. "Jazz, what happened to Danny? He wasn't in school today," was the first question Sam thought to ask.

"He vanished during the night, after we all went to bed," Jazz said. "Dad thinks ghosts kidnapped him, but Mom thinks he ran away. He got into that big fight with Dash Baxter yesterday in the park, when Dash shoved some girl off the monkey bars."

Sam growled something under her breath.

"So what do we do now?" Tucker said, edging away from Sam.

"Mom's calling around to see if anyone has seen him. I mean, how far can an eleven years old boy get in his pajamas and a pair of old socks?"

* * *

"He's waking up, Jack," a girl's voice exclaimed. "Isn't he adorable?"

Danny's blue eyes opened up to see two girls and a white-haired boy floating beside him. Shrieking something about ghosts, he tried to stand up and run, every story his father ever told him about the evil horrors of ghosts ran through his mind.

_You are Daniel Spring. You will wake-up the world after the cold, dark winter._

Danny looked up at the bright, full moon where the still small voice seem to come from. His memories slowly began to fade as his new companions introduced themselves. He never noticed when his black hair became the same snowy white as Jack's or that his sapphire eyes became emerald as Man in the Moon finished the transformation of the boy.

* * *

Clockwork was angry beyond imagining. The boy, who was to have been the most powerful ghost since Pariah Dark had been created, had vanished from the timeline, _while he had been watching!_ Who was powerful enough to snatch a human child from under his very nose?

* * *

Jack nodded to the boy, when he looked at him for confirmation. "We are the spirits of the seasons," he explained. "We can't be seen or heard unless the humans believe in us. I've been trying for 300 years and still no luck. But the Man in the Moon finally answered my loneliness and sent me you three for companionship, besides Wind."

* * *

Watching the humans, MiM smiled. The boy would not be found until Summer advented. He would return the boy here; no memories of either world would follow him when he crossed over the boundary. He would see to that; he had the boy's baby teeth after all and had given them to Toothiana for safekeeping.


	2. Bunny Daffodil

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Bunny Daffodil**

* * *

E. Aster Bunnymund laughed at the little white-haired boy dressed in white shorts and a lime-green t-shirt with shamrocks and a grey kitten sleeping amidst them, danced in the light snowfall in the early morning April light.

"Little cold with shoes off, mate," he mused aloud, knowing the human boy couldn't hear him. He squinted again, then grinned when the white-haired boy whirled around, surprise on his face. "You're new!"

"Uh, yeah," the boy said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Who are you?"

Bunnymund lifted the basket of brightly pastel eggs he was carrying in response. "I'm Aster," he replied. "What's your's?"

"Daniel Spring," the boy replied, hopping over the log that rested between him and the Pooka. "Have you seen Jack anywhere? He was here a minute ago and then just vanished."

"A newborn then," Bunnymund sighed. "Here, ya little ankle biter, hop up here and I'll explain things to ya."

"Okay," Daniel said, hopping up and seating himself behind the big rabbit with the Australian accent.

"Okay," Bunnymund groaned, rubbing one paw over his nose and looking upwards. "I'm the Guardian of Hope, mate. Ya know, the Easter Bunny?"

"Wow, you're really real?"

_Yup, newborn_, Bunny thought, spying the snow receding faintly in strange swirl like patterns. "Yes, Daniel, I am real as you are."

The boy began to cry then. "If I'm real, why can't people see me? A boy and a weirdly dressed man walked straight through me this morning. Very dis-s-com-com..."

"Discomforting," Aster corrected him, carefully pronouncing the word. He looked up as the last snowflake fell on his nose.

"Where's Jack?" Daniel asked him. "I'm scared."

"He left you alone, with no explanation on what you're supposed to do?" Bunnymund was shocked, but not so shocked, as this was the old familiar loner streak in the teenage hellion breaking loose.

"Well, he said to go wherever Wind brought me," the boy in front of him answered. "Man in the Moon said I was to wake-up the world after winter."

"Hmm," Bunnymund mused. "Sounds like sound advice, but I don't know much about the changing of the seasons and how they work. You wouldn't remember what your life was like before MiM woke you up, do you?"

Daniel shook his head. "I did, but it's gone now. Jack says that I'm from another world and Man in the Moon chose me. Leto con-con..."

"Confirmed it," Bunny finished for him. "Well, whatever MiM's purpose was snatching you from your own world, how about you help me hide these Easter eggs?"

"Cool," Daniel explained. "How about placing one in that daffodil patch over there? I'll go clear the snow off for you."

"Thank you," Bunny told him, grateful that at least one seasonal spirit was being helpful.

* * *

Clockwork narrowed the threads of the timelines down to about 67 and it was excruciating trying to keep them all straight. Looking in his present time viewing portal, he watched the Fenton family tacking up Missing photos of their son all over Amity Park.

"Three days and still nothing," he grunted. "Who or what could have taken the boy?"


	3. Aprils

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_Okay, I swore I was going to wait until Saturday to post, but it's been bugging me. So enjoy. Pitch will appear briefly in Chapter 6._

* * *

**Aprils **

* * *

Daniel settled in nicely as the Spirit of Spring. Within the course of a month, he'd made friends with the two Aprils, Rain and Mischief, and a little Latina girl named May Cinqo. The three of them explained about the difference between those bound to Mother Nature and those bound to the Man in the Moon.

"What is the difference?" Daniel asked, examining the apple blossoms he was painting with stored sunlight.

That was another of MiM's gifts he'd discovered. He needed no conduit to unleash his powers. Jack Frost had his staff, Leto Somereld her crystal wand, and Day her paintbrush. He used the shifting threads of sun and shadow to accomplish a great deal in one day, though Day told him off for the reaction headache he'd gotten for melting the foot of snow Jack had dumped in the Warren in retaliation for Aster detonating an egg bomb in a snowman he'd just persuaded some children to build, which led to a snowball fight with rocks hidden inside and a couple of broken noses and nasty cuts.

May just laughed, her greenish-gold eyes lighting up with wonderment at the newborn Spring's endless thirst for knowledge. "Those marked by Man in the Moon were someone before being chosen. Mother Nature's children just are. The two types of spirits feel different, if you would take the time to notice," April Rain replied.

"Weird, but not much of an answer," Daniel replied. He yawned slightly. "Leto's almost here. I've got one last place to go before I go back to sleep."

"Just until September," April Mischief reminded him. "You haven't been south of the equator yet."

"September?"

"Yeah, Spring has to come there at some point."

"Wha-? Day!"

The red-headed Autumn Spirit giggled as Daniel shoved her off him. She examined his work with the apple blossoms. "Beautiful, Spring, but I've never seen a half-finished apple tree before."

May Cinqo grinned mischievously. "It'll put the humans off for sure if they were to see it."

"I'd rather wish they could see or hear me," Daniel muttered. "I hate being alone. It's really uncomfortable when people walk right through you."

"We understand," Day told him gently. "Jack's down in Antarctica throwing a tantrum over the very same thing."

"Hey, your holiday is up in a few days, right?" April Mischief asked May.

"Yeah?"

"Then we're off to Mexico!" Day shouted, before April could say anything more. "Chugga Chugga! Choo Choo!"

"Okay, absolutely no sweets for her," April Rain muttered, causing Daniel and the other girls to crack up.

* * *

MiM watched the orchard owner exclaim with astonishment over the half-pink blossoms the apple tree produced strangely overnight. The Spirit of Spring has eased his own loneliness by making friends, he noted, watching the boy and the girls leap into the Wind and onto clouds, heading to Mexico for the festivities.

* * *

Mentally calculating the time the child had been gone, Clockwork recalled that was on the first day of Spring the boy had disappeared, March 20th. Several weeks had gone by, which put the calendar right about the 5th of May in three days time. Something about the dates, he thought, checking the timelines again for any significance. He'd narrowed them down to about 40.

* * *

"Mom, Danny's never coming home, is he?" Jazz asked quietly at dinner that night.

"He'll be coming home soon, Jazz," Maddie responded. "I don't know how, but I can feel it, in here," she said, tapping her heart.

* * *

"So where are we?" Daniel asked, as the five of them landed on a battlefield, smack dab between two armies.

"This is Puebla," May told him. "Cinqo de Mayo celebrates the victory of a small band of fighters against the imperial army of Napoleon III of France. 4, 000 men, I have been told, lead by General Ignacio Zaragoza, routed an army that hadn't been defeated for over 50 years."

"So what is this then?" April Mischief asked, indicating the two armies, they had landed between.

"It's a reenactment," May replied. "Come on, let's go into town and see what everyone is up to."

"Cool," Day replied, grabbing Daniel's arm and leapt with the wind into the trees and onto the rooftops; the other girls followed at a more leisurely pace. "This place is awesome."

"Day, slow down," Daniel protested, then gasped as a child ran right through him, chasing a black dog. He hissed slightly in discomfort. "I hate when that happens."

"You'll be invisible, a ghost, until you get your first believer," she reminded him. "Yes, it's comfortable, but that is what MiM told you, when you first woke up."

"He told me my name and my purpose," Daniel shot back. "I know MiM chose me from another world and will send me back in between seasons, Day, but please, can't we enjoy the time we have here? The winds are calling me to Russia next."

"I'm sorry, Spring," she apologized. "Hey, look at that!"

Red, White and Green were everywhere: decorations, clothing, food. "A little bit of all four seasons," Daniel murmured. "Too bad Jack or Leto can't see this."

"Too cold/hot for both of them," Day reminded him. "Let's go listen to the mariachi band."

"After we grab something to eat," Daniel said. "Hey, those look good." He was looking at some type of fried rolls.

"Those are hot!" May warned, as they finally caught up to the two seasonal spirits.

"Yeah, I know," Daniel said between gasps. "Water!"

"Here, bite on this," April Rain said, passing him a chunk of bread she swiped from a loaf on the vendor's counter. Said vendor was away from the booth watching a storytelling contest, leaving his neighbors to mind it for half an hour.

Daniel shouted as the wind playfully shoved him to the ground, causing rips to appear in his shorts and brown streaks to dot the landscape that was his shirt. He groaned. "Now, I'm going have to wash this."

"We'll get you some new clothes," Day told him. "Never you mind."

"I'll pick something up in Russia when I get there," Daniel told her.

"Before or after your snowball fight with Jack?" she teased. "Hear, let's get some cinnamon jellybeans."

May smiled. "They'll be short a bit on funds, but I don't think the vendors will mind much. Just take only a small jar. We're spirits, Daniel Spring, we take what we can to survive, but we're not thieves."

"So where to next, May?" one of the Aprils asked the little holiday spirit.

"Over here," she exclaimed, darting around a book vendor and ducking under someone's wash line.

_Thank MiM,_ Day thought to herself, _that Pitch hasn't gotten wind of Daniel's arrival yet._


	4. Jellybeans, Russia, and North

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Jellybeans, Russia, and North**

* * *

"I need _frost _and _spring!_" bellowed the voice of Nicholas St. North from his study three floors above the workshop. "Need them for toy to work properly."

Three floors below him, a very annoyed yeti named Phil looked upwards at his boss. He garbled something back questioningly.

"I don't care if you use snowglobe," North snapped back to his chief of security. "Find them and bring them here."

Of course, to Phil, North meant Jack Frost and Daniel Spring, two seasonal sprites hell-bent on causing mischief in Russia at the moment, egging on the kids throwing snowballs. North, of course, only needed a little bit of snow and a metal spring for the little ice carousel to work properly, but things did tend to get muddled when you couldn't understand what the other was saying.

Grabbing a snowglobe off a special shelf, Phil called for three companions to help him and to bring sacks.

* * *

"It's cold here!" Daniel exclaimed, as Wind landed him by the fountain in a nondescript Russian village square. "At least the cinnamon jellybeans will keep me warm."

"Mind sharing some then?" a familiar jovial voice announced from above him. Daniel whirled around to have Jack dump some snow down his shirt and grab the jar out of his hand. Tipping several out, he'd just popped three of them into his mouth when a snowball hit him in the face.

"Oi! A snowball in spring, Daniel?" Jack spluttered, wiping the snow out of his eyes and mock-glaring at the younger spirit.

"We are in Russia, Jack," came the teasing voice of his younger brother. "And I do kind of owe you one for abandoning me just after I was born."

"You're on, little brother," Jack challenged, throwing one of his fast balls.

Daniel froze and got knocked down. Quickly getting to his feet, he grabbed a snowball only to have it melt in his hands. The second followed the first. "Darn it, Jack!" he yelled. "I'm too warm for it."

"Mushy hearted."

"Warm hearted."

"Pudding brained. Hey!" Jack's mocking insult was cut off as a strong hairy arm came out of nowhere and shoved him into a dark sack. He heard Daniel's muffled voice a moment later and knew whoever their kidnappers were had gotten him too.

* * *

"I TOLD YOU TO BRING ME A LITTLE BIT OF SNOW AND METAL SPRING, NOT TWO WHITE-HAIRED BOYS, A JAR OF JELLYBEANS AND A KITE!" assaulted Jack's ears once he tumbled forth from the sack. Blinking the spots out of his eyes, he motioned for Daniel to remain silent as the other boy rubbed the dark spots out of his eyes.

Daniel spotted the open window on the floor above them and pointed silently at it, lifting questioning eyebrows at Jack, who nodded. Both boys tiptoed silently away from the burly man with the long white beard who yelled at a group of upset yetis in a strong, Russian accent.

Daniel chose that moment to sneeze as a dust-covered elf, dripping in eggnog, fell on top of him.

North whipped around to find the fun-loving Winter Spirit look up at him in alarm, grab the younger green-eyed boy and jump high enough to reach the open window several floors up. He watched the pair of them throw themselves out of the window into the awaiting arms of the North Wind.

"Look what you did," North scolded the chief yeti, who just rolled his eyes at him. "And don't roll your eyes at me. Bad manners. Supposed to wait until my back turned."

* * *

Daniel closed his eyes and snuggled into his older brother's frost-covered hoodie. "That was scary, Jack. We got kidnapped by Santa."

"Yeah," Jack whispered. "Why don't you sleep, Spring? I'll take us back to the lake."

"Okay," Daniel murmured, closing his eyes in fatigue and leaning his head against Jack's chest.

Jack gasped as Daniel dissolved into the moonlight that streamed down around them. "Why?" he shouted to his all-knowing creator, who-as usual-never said a word to him. Jack looked down glumly at his empty arms.

* * *

Clockwork hissed as he felt the rift between both worlds connect for the brief span of an instant. Quickly checking his viewing portal, he confirmed that the boy, missing for almost three months, had materialized still sleeping in his bed, the full moon suspiciously shining brightly overhead.

* * *

Daniel would be back someday, of that, Jack was sure. After all, the southern half of the world had to have its spring also.

* * *

"Danny, time to wake up!" Jazz called, knowing her daily routine was futile.

* * *

"Where did I put that bottle of aspirin?" he muttered, storming off deeper into his lair.

* * *

"I'm up," her brother grumbled. "Go away, Jazz, I was having a nice dream."

Jazz's eyes bulged as she heard that familiar voice. "Danny, you're back. Wait, right here." She ran out into the hallway and at the top of her lungs, yelled, "Mom! Dad! Danny's come back."

Sounds of breaking glass and crockery resounded from the kitchen as the Fenton parents thundered upstairs past their daughter, and burst into their son's room.

"DANIEL FENTON, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS?!" Jack bellowed, causing his wife and son to wince at the ringing in their ears.

* * *

Manny also winced; he'd misjudged the calendar between the worlds when he'd cast his searching spell. He'd intended for the boy to return at the exact moment he'd been taken. He sighed. The spell would take Daniel again in three months time for the southern spring season. He listened for a moment, then was satisified as the boy tried to explain to his parents that he had no memories of the last three months. He thought he'd just gone to bed and woken up the next morning like he did every school day.

* * *

**Well, it's summer time in the Northern Hemisphere and Daniel has just had his first sojourn. I won't detail all his adventures, but we will begin progressing to where he permanently comes to live in the world of the Guardians. **

**I'm always open to constructive criticism, as I know not everything I write is on the par of, say, any number of great writers out there. Flames are part and parcel of being a writer, but while it does hurt to have someone say your work is a piece of garbage (in caps, mind you), one of the things I do not appreciate is being told that I should just die. I will remove any reviews that I catch that even suggests something along those veins, as I did with this one. **

**If you don't like the story, just say so and then suggest a way to improve it. If you love the story, more power to you.**

**Now as for updates, the next chapter will be posted on Saturday. **


	5. Frozen River

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Frozen River**

* * *

"Bummer," Tucker said, as he and Sam picked him off the ground.

"Thanks for believing in me, guys," Danny snarled at him. "No one believes in me anyway."

"We said we were sorry, Danny," Sam told him gently.

"Go to Summer," Danny muttered angrily.

"What?" Tucker gasped, whipping off his glasses and wiping them. "For a second..."

"For a second, what?" Sam demanded. "Danny's in a lot of trouble now and you're playing games. Why are we even friends with you?"

"Sam, Tucker, now is not the time!" Danny hisses in anger, a knock sounding on his door.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, kids?" the nurse asked jovially.

"No, ma'am," Sam said, quickly thinking. "Tucker said something that upset Danny, and as usual, I had to play peacemaker."

"Only if it's a non-veggie versus meat debate," Danny joked, trying to lighten the mood, though he was feeling far from it.

"Danny!"

"Joking!"

Watching from behind the two-way mirror, Maddie frowned, as the doctors scribbled something down onto an electronic tablet. "Anything?"

"He's of sound mind and body, as best as we can decide," Doctor Rand said, looking at his mentor, Doctor Spectra. "His psyche seems to be spiritually awakened, but that's not too unusual for kids his age."

"His soul? He's a born-again Christian?" Maddie asked, frowning a bit. "My son is not very religious."

"You have said it," Doctor Spectra murmured. "Mrs. Fenton, what my colleague is trying to say, is, whatever happened to Danny is the last three months has enabled him to become more sensitive to the spirit world. As world-renowned experts on ghosts and other supernatural creatures, we trust you to understand and protect him at the cost of your own lives. Your son is a key pivotal player on both planes."

"Danny's going to become a ghost?" Maddie asked, one clenched fist raised to her mouth in fear, as she watched the three children in the playroom sort colored blocks and attempt to build the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

"Possible, if the right conditions are met," Doctor Spectra said, her green eyes grave as she looked briefly to the sight of the black-haired girl brain the boy with a paper back book. "Violent bunch, aren't they?"

"So what do I do?" Maddie asked.

"Watch him, but don't smother him," Doctor Rand replied. "He probably has untold trauma store up in his mind. I have a therapist friend, named Penelope, who can open any fount of misery no matter how hidden one may hide it."

Doctor Spectra snorted. "You make me sound like a leech, Bertie."

"Well, it's true, Penny," the other doctor said, mock bowing to her.

"A third colleague of ours has examined Danny, while he was under general anesthesia," Penny Spectra stated. "He's more versed in these matters, Mrs. Fenton, than anyone else alive. It was he who recommended you to our office via a flyer, I suppose."

"Yes," Maddie admitted. "What were his conclusions?"

"The hair and clothing sample you sent us does show Danny Fenton has been globe hopping, if you want to call it that. Traces of eggnog and ice dust, indicate a polar latitude, all Santa jokes aside. The residue on his shorts and shirt indicate he has been to Russia, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the Northeastern USA. As far as any of us can tell, there was hardly a place in the Northern Climatic Zone that the boy hasn't been."

"So it is an international child slavery ring!" Maddie shouted, terror and fright written on her face. "My baby!"

"No, Mrs. Fenton, nor is it a ghost," said Doctor Spectra. "Our other colleague believes that the timing of the seasons has triggered a strange phenomena beyond anything this world has ever known."

"So, we just leave Danny alone, just so he can be kidnapped again? No!" Maddie shouted. "I will never allow this to happen again?"

"Mrs. Fenton, please may we speak with Danny again?" Doctor Rand asked her gently. "I would like to hear the story again, from the boy, this time. There may be an unspoken clue to whom his kidnappers really were."

"Alright," Maddie told her.

"Anna, dear, please escort Mr. Fenton to Room Three," Doctor Rand said, poking his head out his office into the outer sanctum, as the hospital staff oft called it.

"Right away, Doctor Rand," a perky blonde-haired, green-eyed girl, fresh out of high school, Maddie thought, answered the doctor.

Of course, the session didn't go any better than it had the first time. Danny answered the doctors' questions as best as he could. It had been pretty much the same as with the authorities and the school officials.

Finally, after three weeks of being dragged between the three groups, it was decided that Daniel Fenton was not able to recall where he had been or who had taken him. Sam and Tucker shadowed him everywhere; their parents were frightened that they might be kidnapped as well, if it could happen to the Fenton boy while he slept in the safety of his own room.

Sam had noticed a strange thing about Danny that everyone seemed to overlook. More often than not, the Fenton children had frozen TV dinners on most nights since their parents were barely around to cook, so focused they were on trying to solve the mystery of the supernatural or inventing something to catch/destroy/maim a ghost so they could disect and study it. She decided, one night, to put her hunch to the test.

"Hey, Danny!" she greeted him, when she walked in the house. She and Tucker had each been given their own keys by Mr. Fenton, who exclaimed they were his other children. Mrs. Fenton had smiled and rolled her eyes behind his back as his goings on.

"Hey, Sam!" he said, "Think fast!" A plush purple and black teddy bear wearing a white sleeveless daisy embroidered dress hit her in the face.

"Whoa, where that come from? It's kinda cute," she said, cooing over it for a bit.

"Tucker and I went to the arcade after Mr. Lancer released us from the summer school of horrors. The guy is worse than Ben Stein, I swear," Danny exclaimed, flailing his arms around.

"So, Jazz isn't around, I take it?" she asked, listening for the familiar noises.

"No, Mom and Dad took her out to that history exhibit at the science museum; Tucker was here with me up until a few minutes ago, but his mom called and he had to go home, so I haven't been alone for very long until you came in." He sighed and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "I wonder how long it will be before they trust me again?"

"They're scared, Danny," she said, putting the teddy bear down on the sofa. "How about I pop some frozen dinners in the mic and we watch some _Futurama_?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Well, let's see," Sam said, opening the freezer door. "Okay, does shells and cheese sound good to you or do you want the chicken tenders?"

"Shells and cheese," Danny answered, knowing it would be wiser if he ate vegetarian around Sam, who had just started an ultro-recyclo vegetarian phase, much to her parents' horror and everyone else's amusement.

"Okay, would you hold these for me?" she asked, passing him the boxes, while she closed the fridge door and she put the chair she'd been using as a stool back at the table. When she got them back, she frowned.

Her hunch had been correct. Something had happened to Danny, while he'd vanished all those months ago. The TV dinners in her hands weren't even remotely frozen.

She sniffed the air and thought she caught a faint whiff of daisies and jasmine, coming from Danny's direction. That was the other thing about him, she thought, he always smelt like a spring time garden, just without using any perfume or cologne.

What had happened to him?

"Uh, Sam?"

"Oh, right, the TV dinners."

* * *

School began in August and thanks to Mr. Lancer, their summer school teacher from Heck, both Danny and Tucker were joining Sam in the seventh grade at Caspar Middle. Dash Baxter, bully extraordinaire, was the first person to take notice Danny's shadows and decided to have a little fun with him.

Danny's head was tilted back as he put pressure on his nose. "Idiot," he mumbled.

"You should have just given it to him, Danny," Tucker said. "A punch in the nose is not worth the trouble over your lunch money. Sam and I would have shared with you."

"He has money, Tuck," Danny told him, voice muffled by his hands. "He's just looking for a way to show everyone what a loser I am."

"Nor does he know the whole story," Sam added. "And the Fentons want to keep it that way."

"Hey, cheerleader tryouts are next week," Tucker suddenly switched topics. "Want to check it out?"

Danny looked askance at Sam, who just shrugged. "It'll be a change from playing video games," she told him. "That is if you want to go."

Danny sighed. Choosing between the two was getting exasperated day by day. "Fine," he told Tucker, who pumped the air and cheered.

* * *

Autumn settled in nicely, with cool, crisp days, and leaving Danny with a nice, new chore of raking all the potato chip crunchy brown and gold leaves to gather into black trash bags for the curb. Looking at the leaves, he envisioned a scarlet-haired girl sitting up in the branches of the oak tree, paint brush in hand, while she contemplated the canvas in front of her.

"Jack Frost will nip your nose, if you don't watch it," Jazz told him from the back doorway. "Want some hot apple cider?"

He shook himself out of his daydream. "Sure, Jazz. Thanks."

She smiled. "No problem, little brother."

August rolled into September, causing a strange change in Danny's family. His parents kept giving him very scared looks.

"What?" he asked them, finally one morning.

"First day of Autumn tomorrow," Jack said, with a nod at the calendar. "Danny, I..."

"Spring in the Southern Hemisphere," Jazz explained, when they were excused from the table. "They're worried you'll disappear again, like you did last Spring."

"I have no idea what happened last time and I highly doubt it will happen again," he retorted. "I'm going to take a shower; Sam said she'd be over in an hour."

"Leave the door open," Jazz told him.

"Jazz!"

Sam knocked and entered the room. Like Danny, she wore pajamas, except her's were red with green and white exploding stars. "Not a word," she told him.

"Not saying anything," he said, teasing in his tone. He put down the book he'd been reading.

"_The Wizard of Oz?"_ she said, reading the title upside down. "Aren't you a little old for that?"

"Hey, Jazz insisted I do something constructive with my time besides read comics or play video games," he protested, raising his hands in defense.

He kicked the covers off and padded over to the window, in off course, another pair of old grey socks and lavender pajamas. Sam shook her head; somethings would never change. She watched him open the blinds; the full moon was almost directly overhead, shining down into the room.

"Hello, MiM," she heard Danny murmur softly, before he walked over and jumped back into the bed, snuggling down into the covers. Sam threw the borrowed sheets and quilt over the air mattress the Fentons had blown up for her and then snuggled down in them herself.

"So, want to read to me?" she asked. "I'm never too old for a bedtime story."

"Are you flirting with me?" Danny asked her.

"Maybe," she responded.

"Lovebirds," came the voice from the door.

"Shut up, Jazz," they shouted, following with a barrage of pillows and her fleeing laughter.

Sam woke with a start. Danny's clock read 4:24 am and had no idea what time they'd fallen asleep. She recalled several threats/promises from Mrs. Fenton, which were said with a smile.

Danny's book was on the nightstand, along with two glasses of water. The full moon had already set, she noticed, or at least not shining directly into his window anymore. Danny was...

Her purple eyes widened.

Danny was gone!


	6. Night Window

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_The Halloween flower costume for Daniel and trick-or-treating in Australia are both ideas suggested by little miss Bananna Head. _

_The Ballet "Giselle" is a two act drama detailing a peasant girl's love for dancing and how she dies after she finds out her lover has deceived her and is engaged to another. She becomes a spirit-part of a band of similar female spirits-who kill young men by inviting them to dance and drowning them in the end. This is where the concept of Gillie Myrtle came from. I won't spoil the end of the ballet for you, but you really should see it._

* * *

**Night Window**

* * *

He was in France at the moment, reading a map that some dumb tourist had forgotten on the rain soaked bench. "Okay," he muttered, looking at the street names. "If I take a right somewhere near the Eiffel Tower, I should reach Germany at around the time the next Ice Age hits." He threw the map down in disgust. "Should have paid more attention in Geography."

"Aw, cheer up, Spring," a girl said in a short clipped southern French accent.

"Why can't you leave me alone, Gillie? I just got my memories back from the Tooth Fairy, and I am not in the mood to play," he told the white clad girl with a wreath of dead rosemary flowers in her hair. Her red eyes flashed warningly, then nodded.

"Alright, Daniel, we shall talk while we dance," she announced, pulling him to his feet. "Do you still remember the steps?."

"Oh, no!" Daniel shouted, calling the Wind to his aid. "I'm not dancing a pas de deux with you again."

"But Daniel, we had so much fun together," she protested. "Surely you remember."

"Oh, I remember alright," he called down to her. "Never again. Wind, take me somewhere far from here."

**Flashback: 2 years ago**

_"You just tried to drown me in the fountain!" a 12 yrs old boy shouted, rising sputtering to the surface._

_"Well, it was the only lake I had at the moment," the girl told him. She was pretty, but looked like a dead ballerina. "My name's Gillie Myrtle."_

_"Daniel Spring," he acidly answered, wringing out his yellow t-shirt featuring talking animated death traps humans called 'cars'. "Great," he muttered as he climbed out of the fountain. "Just freakin' great! I'm a month early for the monsoon season."_

_**End Flashback**_

* * *

Clockwork watched the boy float aimlessly on the wind travelling through the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Himalayas. The wind was his constant companion, he noted. Sometimes other like spirits would join Daniel, but never for very long.

One of the most shocking things he learned about the boy was that no one could see the young spirit of spring. The first time he had watched one child chase another and both had run right through Daniel; the boy nearly doubled over in surprise and shock. He, then, heard the other white haired boy explain that he couldn't be seen, touched, or heard unless he was believed in.

He was going to fix all that, right after he had a talk with the Man in the Moon.

* * *

Daniel's thoughts once more turned back to a little over a week ago when he'd first met the Tooth Fairy, Queen Toothiana.

"Oh, you've grown up so much, Spring. Let's see those pearly whites," she'd said, examining his teeth. "Well, two cavities have been filled but that's better than a crown, I guess. Still, you need to floss, young man."

He'd blushed. "Yes, ma'am."

He looked around the ruins of the jungle city they were in. Noticing that Jack was whispering something to Leto and Day, who nodded and vanished, he frowned. "What?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Jack replied. "They needed to return to their seasonal duties. After you get your memories back, we'll need to get you some clothes."

"Wait, I'll be right back," Tooth told them.

The results were stunning, even Daniel had to agree. In the year, he'd been absent, Tooth admitted what MiM had done was to protect him from Pitch, but she was tired of seeing him in others' castoffs. Daniel's appearance had changed. Sure, he was fourteen now, soon to be fifteen, but he'd added a lot of muscle from all his ghost fighting. A pair of black jeans, how the Tooth Fairy knew what his size would be, he didn't want to know, and a long-sleeved v-neck shirt made from the same feathery material her own 'outfit' was made out of.

"I look like a hummingbird," Daniel exclaimed, looking at his reflection in the water cascading off the stone wall in front of them. "The other ghosts are seriously going to make fun of me, as if my human half wasn't so much of a geek already."

"You're already a spirit, Spring," Jack reminded him. He pointed upwards to where Man in the Moon was, shining down on him. "Listen to what MiM has to tell you."

Daniel glanced upwards and the Man in the Moon shined his brilliant silvery rays on the boy.

_Do not fear, Daniel Spring. You have no need to fear crossing the veil again. You are home, for good. _

Daniel turned around to face the two Guardians behind him. "He says I have nothing to fear, that I'm no longer to cross the veil between worlds. What if I need to get home to my family? What if the ghosts attack Amity Park while I'm gone?"

"Daniel," Toothiana said, "there is someone who came to me a while ago. He couldn't stay, but he wanted you to have this." She handed him a scroll with a clockwork gear sealed in wax, the initials CW raised in its center.

"Clockwork," Daniel murmured tracing the CW, before breaking the wax seal.

_Dear Danny,_

_Or is it Daniel Spring, as you willed be called henceforth. When the powerful spirit stole you from your original timeline all those years before, I panicked. You were to grow up to be the most powerful ghost in all of history and eventually replace Pariah Dark as the King of All Ghosts._

_I scoured over a hundred timelines and worlds searching for you, but always the powerful spirit was ahead of me. Then I realized that the dates of your disappearances and reappearances coincided with the changing of the seasons._

_The Observants have revealed to me that your future is brightest in the world you now inhabit. I have managed to locate the spirit who stole you from my charge. I have seriously chided him and we have reached an agreement._

_You are no longer half-ghost, Daniel, but a full immortal seasonal spirit, as you were turned into by this powerful spirit. I have agreed to this with one stipulation: that your powers, up to the point you have currently developed, will remain with you. Your ice core, which you would have developed in the course of a few months, has been removed. _

_You will still be able to see and interact with ghosts, but the rules of belief shall apply to them as well. You are forever one of the children of the moon, Daniel. _

_Live wisely,_

_Clockwork_

"You know you're never going to get any older than you are right now, right?" Jack asked him seriously, when Daniel had finished the letter. "You're not upset about that, are you?"

Daniel shrugged. "It crossed my mind, but it is who I am. MiM chose me, changed me. Who am I to rail against the system?"

The flight back to the pond had been too short, Daniel thought, but what awaited him nearly caused him to fall out of the sky. He thought he had seen Plasmius. He squinted. It was Plasmius...and someone else.

They saw a man with ash-gray skin, dark robes, and stringy black hair appear from the shadows behind a white haired man seated on a half-thawed log. "My, my, what do we have here. A half-immortal whose fears are like wine and fruit to my soul," they heard him say before Jack steered them away.

"Pitch," Jack mouthed to Daniel. "Let's go before he sees us." They quickly floated on the wind to the nearby town of Burgess, to meet one, Jamie Bennett, the Last Light.

Shaking his head, to clear his thoughts, another memory cropped up. This time, it was his first Spring trip to Australia, where people were excited about Halloween, the Floriade and the upcoming Melbourne Cup.

_**Flashback: 3 years ago**_

_"I'm heading to Antarctica, so I'll travel with you a part of the way on the wind's back," were Jack's first words after they left the Tooth Palace, where Queen Toothiana had just restored Daniel's memories of his previous trip across the Veil._

_"Halloween is around the corner," he told him, "and it's kind of warm in Australia, not to mention kind of wet in the northern half. I remember studying something of it in school, but I can't remember much."_

_"You've lost them again, haven't you?" Jack stated, looking sadly at his little brother._

_"Yeah, I guess. Why can't I remember anything but bits and pieces of the Other World?" Daniel wanted to know._

_"MiM's way of protecting you, I guess," Jack said. "I can't be there for Halloween as the weather is too warm for my taste, but Day and Leto will be able to join you. You should dress up."_

_"No, I'm too old for that," Daniel told him. "My mother told me that last week."_

_"You're never too old to have fun," Jack retorted. "I'll ask Leto to make a costume for you."_

_"Jack, no!"_

_The results were less than spectacular. Danny was a daisy-a spring daisy with a flower-shaped basket and bright green tights. He glared at his sisters, who were giggling uncontrollably._

_"Oh, Jack has got to see this!" Day said, when she got herself under control._

_"See what? Oh my gosh, Spring, is that you?" Jack's bark of laughter resounded in his ears. "Wait, I have the perfect idea."_

_"This is a bad idea," Daniel told him, scowling as they floated into the Warren._

_"I'm with Spring on this one," Day agreed._

_"Oh come on, you two. Where's your sense of adventure?" Jack said, blue eyes twinkling mischievously. "Oh, all you have to do, is knock and when the Easter Kangaroo answers, say 'trick or treat'. What more fun can be in that?"_

_"The Easter Bunny is a kangaroo?" Daniel asked, confused._

_"Of course, I'm not, mate, but who are you two supposed to be?" a strong Australian voice asked, as a bit of greenish white light appeared behind the six foot tall Pooka in the doorway. Daniel groaned, Jack had chosen that moment to vanish. "Oh, you're here to help me paint eggs."_

_Day and Daniel both groaned at this._

**End flashback**

The one other thing that bothered Daniel was that he had missed all the fun and excitement when Jack had become a guardian. Day and Leto told him he'd woken up late that year, after Easter actually, at around the time Jack had gained his first believer. Jamie couldn't see the other seasonals, no matter how Jack or they tried. For a few minutes, Daniel had been there, then MiM had whisked him away back across the Veil.

The Wind whispered softly around him.

"Huh?" he asked, almost falling off the branch he'd been sitting in.

Wind whispered again to her flower child.

"Oh? Something strange is going on back at the pond?" Daniel shook his head. "Hope it's not something really serious."

* * *

"So do you understand now, half-ghost?" the man with the sharp teeth and strange gold and silver eyes asked the white-haired man sitting on the half-frozen log. "Or shall we have another go-round for the next few weeks?"

"No," Vlad whispered, staring down at his lithe piano player's hands. "I'll just..."

"Oh, the way is closed to you," Pitch told him, grinning. "Perhaps one day, you'll find another rift, but so long as you believe, you will see. The Man in the Moon's precious Guardians would love that."

"Believe," Vlad murmured, his spirit drained and broken. "I had no idea Daniel felt like that."

"Spring is newborn to our world," Pitch said, delighting in the adult's ignorance. "Oh, I know a lot of things other spirits try to hide in the light from me, but secrets always drift down in the shadows eventually."

He cupped Vlad's face and forced him to face him. "Daniel needs you. He is alone and needs a believer. Without one, he will cease to exist. Daniel brings new life and hope into a world waking up after a frigid winter baptism. He's a little boy who suffers silently, drifting on the wind. He is an immortal seasonal spirit, but he needs someone who understands him. He needs YOU."

"He's a little boy," Vlad murmured, suddenly jerking his head away from the man's bony grasp. "You know what has happened to Daniel?"

"Now, we're getting somewhere," Pitch announced. "Plasmius, tell me this: Is the Man in the Moon a villain?"


	7. Lords of the Silence

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Lords of the Silence**

* * *

A human child lifted his bright brown eyes in the direction that Jack was facing. "Why am I here, Jack?"

"You need to believe, Jamie," he said, as Spring drifted closer to them. "Then we'll have a party."

"Okay, I'll try, Jack."

"Turn and face me, Jamie," Jack Frost told the mortal child. Daniel landed and joined them, a bit confused; Day signed to him to hush. Daniel took one look at the human child and hightailed it for the trees. Day just sighed. Trust Daniel to turn shy all of a sudden.

"Do you believe in someone who can paint the most amazing designs in the fall foliage?" Jack was asking the boy.

"Yes," came the reply, followed by a gasp as a beautiful auburn-haired girl popped into being beside Jack.

"Well done, Jamie!" she exclaimed, picking him up and smothering him in kisses, to everyone's amusement. "I'm Day Aria Scarlett, otherwise known as the Autumn seasonal."

"Also otherwise known as a hyperactive pain in the neck," another girl said, her short black hair and piercing purple eyes hidden between black wire-frame glasses snapped. "And judging by that look, I take it you can see me, Jamie Bennett."

The boy nodded, his mouth wide open. "I am the Summer seasonal, known to my friends as Leto Somereld," he heard her say.

"Summer, Winter, and Fall," Jamie murmured, "but where's Spring?"

Jack looked over to Daniel. "Hiding behind a tree and trying not to hyperventilate," he replied. "Daniel, come out and see if Jamie believes, you big scaredy cat."

A white haired boy with the brightest emerald green eyes, peeked out from behind a tree. "Am not!" came his retort. Jack rolled his eyes.

"He's not related to the Tooth Fairy, is he?" Jamie asked Jack.

"No, she just made his shirt. He's the youngest and shyest of us all. Little brother, come introduce yourself," he called out.

"I'd rather dance with Gillie Myrtle," shot back the reply. "As least drowning in the fountain is the best she can do nowadays."

Jack winced, then grinned wickedly at the girl who appeared dancing on the surface of the pond. "Is that why you brought her with you?" he teased.

"What? Oh, no! She followed me here," Daniel moaned, when their eyes made contact. She blushed and motioned for him to dance with her.

"I'm getting out of here," he muttered, trying to raise the wind, but Wind gently pushed him back to the earth. "Aw, come on, Wind!"

_Silly, flower child_, Wind chided him gently, ruffling his hair.

Gillie returned to dancing on the water as if it was a flat mirror, her feet barely skimming the surface. Jamie laughed at the antics of the immortal spirits, then sobered as he remembered they weren't entirely alone.

Day approached and pinned Daniel's arms behind his back. "Come and sit down," she told him sternly. "There is something you must know." Jack nodded, his pale face serious for once.

"I've got him," Day called out to the forest beyond them. "It's safe to come out now."

"Whoa!" Jamie shouted, nearly falling down in shock. "That vampire looks sick."

"I'm not sick," the vampire growled, turning pupiless red eyes at the boy. "Nor am I a vampire."

"W-w-what's going on?" Daniel stuttered. "W-w-what is Plasmius doing here? And Pitch Black too?"

The Boogeyman slithered out of the nearest tree's shade, giving the vampire, Plasmius, one long, hard, searching look, then nodded. "You have learned much in a week, half-immortal."

"You forced me to live through all my fears," Plasmius replied. "But I do not see anyone here but us two and a human child."

"You can see Pitch, but you can't see Jack or the others?" the boy asked.

"Very very rare is the adult who still believes, Jamie," Pitch replied. He led Plasmius to the empty log on which Daniel was now sitting, Day and Leto on either side of him, preventing him from using any of his gifts and vanishing.

Pitch bent down and directed the boy's gaze to meet his own. "Daniel, do you believe the Man in the Moon is a villain?"

"No," the boy whispered, flinching at the sight of the silver and gold eyes set in the ash-grey face of the Nightmare King.

"Do you know why you were chosen?" Pitch asked in a soft voice.

"No," came the even response from the Spring seasonal.

"Before I was the Boogeyman, Daniel Spring, I, too, was a warrior. I volunteered to guard the darkest fears the Constellations were able to imprison. I failed," Pitch told him, his voice was gentle and firm. "I was deceived and was conquered. I allowed myself to be transformed into what I am by my own hatred and fears. I was death to all who knew me before. The Man in the Moon saved me."

"What?!" Jack yelled, slipping and falling comically to the ground.

"Jack, shh!" Leto hushed him.

"Yes, Frost, the Man in the Moon saved me. He gave me my purpose, even though I tried to kill him and his precious Guardians many times over. After we last fought, he gave me a seed and told me to plant it when the youngest guardian awoke and the proper garden was found. Now, Spring, you must water that seed so the Man in the Moon may harvest the precious fruit that will arise from that seed."

"Bitter love," Day answered.

"You are one, Miss Autumn, to be speaking. You, yourself, have a secret you harbor from all others," Pitch said, smirking in response. "Why haven't you told them of the Death Guide?"

"You, sneakly little liar!" Vlad heard, before a young girl, who looked verily much like Miss Manson, shouted, dropping Daniel's arm and lunging for the red-haired girl who leaped away and ran for her life. It hit him like lightning.

He stared wide-eyed at Daniel in his ghost form. "Daniel?"

"Hi, Vlad," the boy answered him dully. "I guess you can see and hear me now."

"You have much explaining to do, little badger," the half-ghost told the young spirit. "But first..."

A loud scream came from the pond. Gillie Myrtle, in the act of trying to drown Leto and Day, who were wrestling beneath the trees in the muddy shallows, turned and pointed to a faint outline that was becoming sharper by the minute at the edge of the clearing.

"Wow!" Jamie murmured, as Pitch murmured something to Jack about the strange sharp mental projectiles of fear he was reading off the newcomers inhabiting the brick house with the bright lights and weird contraption on the roof. "This is more fun than that wild sleigh ride you gave me last Easter, Jack."

"Wild enough, kiddo," Jack murmured, forming a snowball in his hand with his icy breath. With pinpoint accuracy, he hit both Day and Leto with it. "Knock it off; we have company."

"Rune of the Lanterns is still hotter than Eros Valentine," Day whispered to Leto, while wiping the snowball's remains off her face.

"But all the girls love Daniel," Leto murmured, while avoiding Gillie's deadly embrace. "Otherwise, this one wouldn't have followed him half way round the world."

"It's the flowers," Day agreed.

"I like the color of his eyes," Gillie murmured, joining them as they returned to the others. "His dancing is really improving, especially with the flowers that spring from his footsteps."

All three girls looked toward Daniel, who looked up at them confused. Sure enough, a small carpet of flox and clover had cropped up at his feet.

"Girls," Vlad heard Daniel grumble, as they burst into fresh peals of laughter.

"Quiet!" Pitch shouted, pointing at the house. "Someone is coming out."

"Vlad, what did Pitch do to you?" Daniel whispered.

"Something's are better left unsaid, Daniel," he replied softly.

"Jack, how does Pitch know about me?" he whispered to the older boy on the other side of him.

"If it's whispered in the shadows, Pitch will know about it a heartbeat," Jack murmured. "Hush now."

"Oi, Frost!" a male voice shouted from the other side of the pond. "Inviting the dead to our gatherings now?"

"I only started accepting the stupid invitations because I was sick of you trying to beat me up every year for a little early winter fun, Rune," Jack shot back without turning around to see the speaker.

"Where do you want the tables set up?" Rune yelled.

"Over there by the pond," Leto shouted back. "Of all the rotten luck."

* * *

The front door on the house opened up and a boy with green skin and glowing emerald eyes dressed like an astronaut came flying out, followed by a skeletal bird. "I see them; Phantom's with them-Plasmius too," he called out to the second person to emerge-a young girl with red hair.

"I don't see anything," the red-haired girl said, her teal eyes scanning the group watching her from the trees. "It's just your imagination, Youngblood. I've got to get the smelling salts to wake up Mom and Dad thanks to the stupid fumes."

"Not my fault the portal exploded and I, uh, we got stuck in your basement just as you blasted yourself to explore another world," the ghost told her. "I'm going to go and say hi to everyone. Looks like they're having a party."

* * *

Daniel seriously wanted to bash his brains out by this point in time. "Skulker, I can handle," he muttered to Vlad, "but why did they have to bring Youngblood along?"

"Would you rather it had been Klemper?" Vlad teased.

"Fascinating," Pitch said, show off his wicked sharp teeth in a huge, evil grin. "I think I'll stick around for the party after all."

Everyone groaned, but left to perform the duties that Jack assigned on the spot to them. More spirits would begin to arrive soon, and there was much to be done.

"Phantom, boy, did we ever miss you!" Daniel half-listened to Youngblood chatter away, when he and Jamie went to gather firewood.

"Wind," Daniel called, as his ever-present companion lifted him to the tops of the trees, where he sent a huge dead branch crashing down, almost hitting the human boy, who stayed below. "Sorry, Jamie."

"It's alright," the boy called out, voice shaking slightly. Pitch turned around and gave him a knowing look. Jamie blushed.

"What is most strange," the skeletal parrot said, almost right in Daniel's ear, "is why Youngblood can see your new friends, but not the humans in the house."

"Belief is seeing," Daniel replied, as Wind lowered her flower child to the forest floor, while her frost child gave him a scolding for almost hurting the Last Light.

"I really am sorry, Jamie," Daniel told him, when the bird left to go report to the humans in the house; he recognized it as his former one. Inside would be his family, may be Sam or Tucker, or even worse, the A-Listers themselves.

"It's okay, Daniel," the boy said. "Look at what Rune's doing?"

"Amazing you can see all of us, ghostling," Rune was saying, as Youngblood helped him to write some ancient runes on the planks of scarred ash-grey wood that served as the table. "Not many of your kind can."

"Not many people can see me either," Youngblood was saying as the last rune he had written under Rune's watchful eye was finished. "So now what?"

"We summon the spirits," Rune of the Lanterns said, laughing at the boy's confused expression. "Sorry, bad pun there."

Jack rolled his eyes, then froze as a motion on the forest's edge caught his eye. "Daniel, come away from there."

"They're my family, my friends," the younger spirit protested. "I have to see them."

"You do not exist to them," Jack reminded him. "Remember the awful feeling of having a non-believer walk through you? It will happen again; it is wise to forget them."

"Or not," Plasmius argued. "Daniel was half-ghost before he ever became a spirit. He should, theoretically, still be able to take human form."

"I can't, Vlad," Daniel answered. "And quit talking behind my back as if I'm not there. I'm not a kid anymore."

"Daniel."

"Sorry, Jack," Daniel apologized, his turn to blush. "Isn't it time to take Jamie back home? It's almost sunset."

"Aww!" Jamie yelled, stomping one of his feet on the ground. "Jack, you said I could come to the party."

"And so you did," Jack told him, smiling fondly down at him. "But your mother will be worried about your whereabouts soon; Claude and Caleb can only cover for you for so long."

"Yeah, I guess so," Jamie admitted. "Bye everyone, nice to meet you. Oh, cool!" This last statement was directed at Rune, who'd ignited the glowing runes on the table, which tranformed into glowing lights set up high in the trees all around the pond.

"Let's go, Jamie," Jack told him. "Daniel, stay away from that house until I get back. We'll go investigate together."

"Alright," Daniel replied.

"Spring, I mean it," the Guardian of Fun warned.

"I said 'alright', Jack!" Daniel shouted, a slight echo of a sonic vibration in the air, his emerald eyes blazing in anger. "What more do you want from me?"

"To be safe," Jack whispered, hugging him tight. "Wind!" Jack shouted, snatching Jamie up into his arms and jumped into the open sky, as Wind caught him in her arms.

"Anything I can do to help?" Daniel asked, after Jack and Jamie left, turning to Plasmius, who just shrugged.

"The Danny Fenton I knew would have just ignored the warning," Plasmius said, watching Day and Leto coo over Youngblood's pet. "What are those two doing?"

"I'm not Danny Fenton, Vlad," Daniel remind him. "I haven't been him for some time."

"A mere week passes and already you have matured much, Daniel," Vlad observed. "Not once have you called me 'cheesehead' or 'fruitloop'. I also believe that your little ballerina friend is signing for you to join her for a dance."

"Not on your afterlife," Daniel grumbled.

Neither of the two of them noticed the two figures slip silently from the strange house and move toward the pond.

"You sure you saw lights out here, Sam?" one whispered to the other.

"Positive," came the reply. "Just as I'm sure, we'll find Danny when we reach them. The Parrot was positive it was him, along with Plasmius, and some other ghosts. I saw the lights ignite from the house."

* * *

**Creating the seasonal spirits eased Jack's loneliness, but also better prepared him to accept MiM's role for him as a Guardian. Now, my question to you, dear Reader, is this: what shall happen at the party? As for Daniel's behavior, he has had very little interaction with the large gatherings the spirit world often celebrates so is naturally shy. Part of this is the same way with me, I don't mind gathering with friends for celebrations, but it makes me very nervous (and I tend to be a bit of a wall-flower) at large social gatherings. My family often gives me grief over preferring solitude in my room than going out with friends to a pub. **

**This is also the last chapter I've written in advance for this story, so I'm not sure when the next update will come. **


	8. Falling Word

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_Unlike other spirits, Mother Nature and the Man in the Moon do not need belief in order to be seen. Don't ask me why, I just believe it to be so. If I got anything wrong with the research I did on Norse runes and crocus flowers, let me know; I know there are a few varieties of crocuses that bloom in summer and autumn. As for William Joyce's illustrations of MiM, he really does look like W.W. Denslow's illustrations of the Wizard of Oz, but then again, that's my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt if you don't agree._

* * *

**Falling Word**

* * *

Sam's eyes widened at the three runes repeated over and over again as they floated above the trees. "Raido, Laguz, Isa," she murmured. "Journey, Lake, Ice."

"What?" Tucker hissed. "Sam, I don't see anything out here in the pitch black."

"It is a dangerous thing to summon me while skulking in the shadows," a dark male voice said, very close to their ears.

Tucker and Sam yelped, tumbling out of the low shrubs they'd been crouched behind. Shaking, they stood up and looked frantically about. Still no one in sight.

"Pitch, was that absolutely necessary?" Jack called out, from where he and Daniel were helping Plasmius and Rune afix several lanterns to some of the trees to help guide the spirits in for a safe landing. "You scared them out of a few years of their life."

Tucker whipped around searching for the voice which had just spoken. "Huh? The pond's haunted, Sam. Let's go back to the house. We can resume our search for Danny in the morning."

"While I'll be in Norway or Greece by then," Daniel muttered, half listening to his two human friends below, while tieing off the last knot in the rope binding the right-hand lantern in securely to the Green Ash tree. "There," he said, dusting his hands off. "Okay, Plasmius, light 'em up!"

"Right, little badger," said, the half-ghost seated on the branch above him. "Hmm, you may be invisible due to their unbelief, but I am not. Pitch has already scarde them out into the open, so how about I pop in for a little chat?"

"Don't over do it," Daniel warned. "There's a bed of crocuses about a couple of feet over that way," he said, making a motion towards the west side of the lake. "Get them over there and I will make them bloom. Mayhap, that'll get them to believe."

Sam watched suddenly as two swaying old-fashioned gas lanterns burst into a bright rosy glow-she recognized it instantly as ecto-energy. "Tucker, I think Plasmius followed us here."

"It is possible, if Youngblood and his parrot were sneaking around, then why not him?" Tucker stated, teeth chattering.

Pitch smirked as he leaned against another shadow-shrouded tree. These older mortals were easier to scare awake, than asleep. He watched as the half-immortal ignited the lanterns with his own spectral energy, then float down to forest floor, landing behind the children. "Be my guest," he said, smirking, as he gestured at the teenagers.

"Miss Manson, Mr. Foley, to what do we owe for having the fine pleasure of your company this evening?"

"Told you Vlad followed us," Tucker hissed at Sam.

"Ah, but I didn't follow you, Mr. Foley," Plasmius told them silkily. He circled them for a moment, then smiled. "I fell into a rift in the Ghost Zone well over a week ago."

"What did you do with Danny?!" Sam shouted, pulling out a Fenton ecto-lipstick laser. "We know you stole him from us."

"I did no such thing," Vlad snarled. "Come and catch me." He shot up into mid-air and took off to the meeting spot Daniel had pointed out to him.

"Don't ask, Tucker, just keep up," Sam said, grabbing the mortal boy's arm and racing off after the half-ghost millionaire.

"This is an interesting night indeed," Pitch murmured, fading into the tree's shadow and reappearing in the one next to the Spring seasonal, who looked a little bored. "Most interesting indeed."

Daniel Spring yelped when the Boogeyman said this, melting out of the shadows. "Don't do that!" Pitch Black just smirked in response and pointed out the approaching half-ghost and the human children. Waiting until they were almost on top of him, he gently coaxed the tiny white buds into bloom.

Sam gasped, as Plasmius held out a pink ecto-orb of energy so she could see. "These are crocuses," she whispered. "It's after April 2nd. They shouldn't be blooming."

"Spring has awakened them from their sleep," Plasmius replied, floating just out of their reach. "You are in another world, with its own rule and its own spirits. Here the legends and myths of childhood are real, if you believe. What do you believe in, Mr. Foley?"

"The Boog-g-g-eyman," Tucker said, teeth chattering with fear.

"Welladay," a pleasant, nasally voice greeted them. "Now I can finally meet you face-to-face, Tucker, was it, I believe the girl called you?" The boy's eyes widened as the twin silver and gold eyes gleamed brightly in the dark shadows.

"You're real?" Tucker gasped. Sam balled a fist and placed it against her mouth to avoid screaming in fear.

"I still have my touch," Pitch noted, smirking off to his left, where an invisible Jack Frost stood, staff raised threateningly, on another branch of the tree. He, then, reached down and gathered a handful of the tiny white cup-shaped blossoms. He cocked his head slightly as if listening to something. "What are you doing, young lady?"

"These flowers shouldn't be blooming in this place," the girl said, trembling. "It's the wrong time of the year."

"And how do you know this?" the Boogeyman asked, if indeed that was who it was speaking to them.

"Danny bought some seeds online for me once for my birthday," she told him. "It was before I had my greenhouse where I grow my own food since I'm an ultro-recyclo vegetarian. They never grew; the soil was the wrong temperature. I'm not always very good with plants."

"Which is why you should have waited until it warmed up like I told you," a familiar voice scolded her gently. "I did warn you, Sam."

Sam opened tear-stained violet eyes up to see a pair of bare feet standing in front of her. Lifting her head up further, she was greeted by a pair of smiling emerald eyes framed by wild white hair. "Danny?"

He grinned and bowed dramatically to her. "Daniel Spring, at your service, madam. Our first guests have arrived."

"I don't see anyone," Tucker broke in, looking about.

"You have to believe," Daniel murmured. "This is my first gathering with other spirits so I have no idea who they are either. I'll know some people, I guess."

Jack leaped down the few remaining branches and the wind caught him and set him gently on the ground, balancing his shepherd's crook on his shoulder. "Well, let's go introduce you, Spring, or do I need to have you hogtied by Leto and Day?"

"I'm not going to bolt, Jack," Daniel growled. Spring glared at Winter for a moment, then began laughing. "I'd like you to meet the two people who share all my secrets when I lived in the Other World. This is Sam and this is Tucker."

"I see what you mean, Spring," Jack said, walking around Sam, checking her out. "She's kinda cute and does look like Leto."

"Danny, who are you talking to?" Tucker asked. Jack reached out and nipped his nose with two fingers.

"Jack Frost," Sam said, giggling when Jack nipped her next. He winked at her, then bowed when she gasped, eyes opening to the spirit world around her. "Oh my gosh, Tucker, I wish you could see this."

"He's the Winter seasonal," Daniel added. "Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't call me 'Danny'; my name is Daniel Spring, the harbringer of the end of snow."

"Spoilsport," Jack teased, glad to see Daniel relaxing and not running from any one who got too near him. He turned his head and watch the African-American boy pull out a small metal box and begin tapping at it with a stylus. "What is he doing?"

"Setting it up to record," Daniel answered, frowning a bit. "It can integrate with ghost technology, but I don't know if it will integrate with our magics."

"Maybe," Jack said. "I'll have to ask North about it. Hello, Rune."

"So a couple of older believers decided to crash our gathering," the older teen boy asked, orange eyes laughing at the humans' expression. "Oh, don't worry, you won't be able to see all of the guests," he told her. "You have some experience with the inhabitants of my domain, so that is why you can see me."

"Sam, this is Rune of the Lanterns. Day and Leto have a really big crush on him," Daniel told her, noting her blush. Rune was a hunk, in her opinion. His eyes looked like wine glowing in the strange runelight above them. He appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties. His wore his black hair short and spiky, with orange highlights. He was tall and slender like Jack Frost, she noted, but preferred to wear clothing straight out of a gothic novel.

"I am the Death Guide," he told her, smiling in amusement. "My brother is Lord Death after all. It is wise that he and my sister are not visit this night."

"Helen declined per usual?" Pitch asked. "And here I was so looking forward to her lovely companionship for the evening."

Rune laughed. "When you are back in her good graces, my dark gentle sir. I shall give her your regards." He bowed respectfully.

"Dude, I just realized something," Tucker blurted out, causing everyone to turn around and face his direction. "You're dressed like a hummingbird. Danny, only a girl would be caught dead in that shirt. Dash will never let you live this one down."

Daniel flushed with embarrassment, then with a wicked glint in his eye, he called out, "Oh, Gillie, I have a dance partner for you!"

"What?" Tucker sputtered, as Danny raised one hand, calling the wind to aid in propelling the mortal boy to the pond. His precious PDA sacrificed the short-circuit heaven all his gadgets went to, he stumbled as pale hands rose above the waters and a pale girl, dressed as a ballerina, spun herself into view.

"A willing partner," she cried, as she signed for him to join her. "Oh, thank you, Spring seasonal. I am forever in your debt."

"Danny!" Tucker shouted, as she led him further away from the shallows.

"Enjoy the swim!" Daniel shouted, laughter bubbling out of him.

"I think you've made North's Naughty List," Jack mused from behind him.

"But you still hold the record," Day's lilting voice called out from overhead. "We've found this little one looking for you, Jack." Baby Tooth zipped over and pecked him on the cheek.

A burst of light and dark and then the guests began floating in from the four corners of the wind.

"She's the Autumn seasonal," Daniel whispered to Sam. "Let's go find Youngblood."

"Why?" she wondered.

"Rune has a task to perform."

* * *

"Who is that?" Sam asked, pointing to an old man with long white hair and a flowing beard dance underneath them with a tall woman with bright aqua hair and sparkling blue eyes. Both wore richly ornamented robes of royal blue and silver.

"The Lord of the Deeps and the Lady of the Lake," Daniel explained. "See the tiara of blue ice spikes?"

"Oh. How about them?"

Daniel squinted, then laughed silently. "The girl who looks like you is Leto Somereld, the Summer seasonal. The guy she's dancing with is Eros Valentine."

"Um, he's the spirit of Valentine's Day or something, I take?" Sam asked, not quite grasping the concept of living mythology in front of her.

"Yes," he said, swinging one leg back and forth as he watched the couples dancing. "Wind always knows the best view spots." He looked down to see a dried-off Tucker flash him a 'you are so dead when you come down from there' look from his spot near the campfire.

The sounds of trumpets flared signalling the arrival of the guests of honor. Daniel wrapped one arm around Sam's waist and gently floated down Wind's back to the forest floor.

"Who are they?" Sam asked, watching a tall woman walk gracefully in stride with her escort-a man, small in stature, who was dressed something like the Wizard of Oz from the original drawings by W.W. Denslow. The woman looked like a Faerie Queen dressed all in rich forest green and gold.

"The Man in the Moon and Mother Nature," Daniel whispered. "I have to go Sam. I have to be with the other seasonals."

"But what about me and Tucker?!" Sam hissed.

Daniel turned and looked at her sadly. "Go home, Sam. I will come soon. My parents and sister do not believe. See if you can get them to suspend their disbelief."

"Alright, Daniel," she said, still finding it strange to not call him by the old familiar nickname. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Daniel turned and waved, then called the Wind to carry him to Jack's side, where the Man in the Moon and Mother Nature waited for him, knowing that Sam would ignore him and pay witness to what was to occur.


	9. Blue Stars

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Blue Stars**

* * *

"You really expect us to believe, Sam, that you saw lights in the woods and they lead you to Danny?"

"Actually, Mrs, Fenton, his name is Daniel and he..."

"Of course his name is Daniel. I still think it's a dumb name. Wait, you saw the lights too?"

This particular conversation had been going on since the Fentons had caught their son's best friends slipping into the house three hours before dawn. Sam's story had a hint of lunacy to it. Spirits? Puh-lease! More like the local ghosts playing a prank on a couple of other-dimensional teens.

"You saw the lights too?" Tucker Foley spot up, head snapping up in recognition. "I didn't really see anything, but I could hear the voices, especially after the Boogeyman scared us out of the bushes."

"Tucker!" Sam shouted. "I told you not mention him."

"Alright, kids," Maddie told them. "Up to bed now. And never let me hear you talk about mythological lies again. Next thing you'll be telling me is that Danny is siding with his kidnappers."

"But we showed you the vids," Tucker protested.

"The gentle lapping of water in a late-night swim," Maddie dimissed the image of Gillie Myrtle smiling and striking a perfect restful pose. "You are lucky you didn't catch a cold."

"Joy," Sam muttered, before turning to trudge up the steps. "I know you don't believe, Mrs. Fenton, but I know what I saw and heard. Danny is an immortal spirit who brings spring to the world. Just believe in him. You accepted the fact that he was half-ghost; why can you accept this?"

"Samantha Manson!"

"Going!"

* * *

**(Night Before)**

"Let's leave Jack to speak with the Tsar," the beautiful woman in green whispered, as she gently took Daniel by the shoulder and turned him in an eastward direction. "I would talk with you, my son."

He blinked at her in confusion. "Son? You're not my mother."

"In a way, I am," she affirmed his suspicions. "I am mother to all who live on this planet: spirit and flesh. The Seasonsals, are, my conduits; gifts from the Man in the Moon to me; to mother, as I desire and see fit."

"Mother Nature," he stated, eyes wide open now. "You really are Mother Nature."

"And long ago, I was a mortal girl, much like the friends from your old world, who still linger where they should not. My father has drawn the dark veil of shadows over their eyes, so they will rest until morning. They will be in much trouble, but do not fear for them."

"So," Danny said, looking down at his hands. "it is right to call you 'Mother'."

"As all do," Mother Nature answered. "I know you will go to the human household in the clearing come the morning, so I give you until the sun rises to its full height on the morrow to make your peace with them. The only thing I ask of you is not to use your powers as you did with the girl and the boy to persuade them to believe."

"But I won't _exist,_" Daniel began to protest. Mother Nature silence him with a gentle finger pressed against his lips.

"You met Jamie Bennett earlier this evening, did you not?" she queried him.

"Y-y-yes, ma'am," he stuttered.

"Perhaps he would like to meet people from another world?" she suggested.

Understanding flood him; he bowed in respect to her. "I thank thee, Lady Mother,"

"Oh, Spring," she sighed, ruffling his hair gently. She laughed as he yanked away from her and tried to flatten it. "The Wind knows where you are needed most. Trust in her to guide you as you ride her back. You will soon be an innocent no longer and will uncover the darker aspects of your season. Five weeks from now, you will fall into sleep. Now, remember, only until the sun rises to its full height may you have to talk to your parents and your sister."

"Yes, Mother," he told her.

* * *

**(Back to the Present)**

Jack stared moodily out the back door and across the clearing. He could hear the soft lapping of the waves on the pond's surface; the source of last night's disturbance. He pinched the bridge of his nose, deep in thought.

_All of this started 3 years ago. First, Danny was injured, while saving Sam at one of the local playgrounds, then a couple of months later, he was taken from us. We thought it was ghosts or someone who wanted ransom money; the only clue to a name for one of the kidnappers was the name 'Jack'. Then he came back to us after three months._

_Doing calculations, we noticed all his disappearances coincided with the seasons changing, and always at night. Except for last year. Last year, he disappeared, but reappeared the next morning visibly shaking, mumbling something about the moon._

_We decided to have someone in close proximity to Danny at all times after that. So much has happened to that boy in the last year: his near-brush death by electrocution when he turned the portal on, his subsequent transformation into a half-ghost (I still can't believe my son is that stupid ghost punk kid, Danny Phantom), and then he disappears again while he and Sam slept._

_Who or whatever found that parallel dimension button that I hid in the Fenton Stockades is going to regret it. But if Sam and Tucker are correct, Danny is here somewhere nearby. _

_Wherever Danny is, I believe in him._

Whatever Jack had been expecting to see out the back door, the last thing was a white-haired green-eyed fourteen years old boy wearing a v-necked shimmering green, blue, and gold shirt that fit snugly over his toned body and black jeans. His barefeet were swinging back and forth over the edge of the steps.

Jack did not reach for an ecto-gun, as he normally might have on any other day. He thought back carefully to Sam, Tucker, and strangely enough, Jazz, telling him the history of Danny Phantom. He also thought back to this morning's excuse for why the kids, sans, Jazz, had been out all night. The ghost kid and his parrot had also ventured out, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't ever be coming back.

Unlatching the door, he looked quickly back into the kitchen at his wife; she'd gone back downstairs to the lab it seemed. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Danny?" he whispered, the wind whipping in his face.

Daniel looked up at the human; his eyes wide in fright. Wind was whispering now to him of foreign lands across the sea. He could sense those places she wanted to take him, places where he could play.

"You can see me?" he murmured, rising to his feet.

The human nodded.

Daniel did the only thing he could think of I n that moment. "Wind!" he yelled, as she rushed to catch her flower child in her embrace

Jack's hand fell to his side. "Danny?" he asked weakly, blinking back the tears.

* * *

"Oh, Daniel," Leto sighed.

* * *

**Okay, Danny got nervous and panicked. Next chapter will involve Jack in older brother mode and the other Guardians make an appearance. You will also find out what Jack had to say to the Man in the Moon, which is something I've been waiting to hear since watching the movie. **

**I'm going to be travelling for the next few days so I will try and have the next chapter for _At Three Everything Starts or Ends_late tomorrow night.**


	10. 42 years and 66 days

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**42 years and 66 days**

* * *

"It has been 42 years and 66 days since I last spoke with someone," the sea spoke as the boy looked up to see who had spoken. "And don't you dare freeze my waves, brat."

"Wouldn't dream of it," the spring seasonal heard his older brother snap back to the sea. "Seriously, Nereus would be put out if he heard you, Captain. Well?" This last remark was directed at Daniel.

"Well what?" the younger boy wanted to know.

Jack sighed. "Wind, enough," he sternly ordered his ever-constant companion, who was 'twixt the flows of floating her frost child into the air and hurtling him into the sea or burying both him and her flower child in a deep grave of finely ground powdered seashell sand. Wind blasted a puff of warm air into his face, the rubbing sensation subsided.

Daniel chuckled at the comical expression on Jack's face, then coughed, trying to adopt a serious look on his own. "Why are you here, Jack?"

"On a beach at midnight somewhere in eastern Europe? No idea," came the glib explanation. "Leto says you ran when your father saw you."

Daniel gulped. "I was scared. Jack, you have no idea what my life has been like since MiM first chose me. Half the year I'm asleep, the other half I'm painting flowers and melting snow! I lost my family and friends. I hate working within MiM's stupid belief system."

"I understand more than you'll ever understand. Let me tell you what the Man in the Moon told me last night," Jack answered him.

Daniel gave him a long questioning look. "What did the Man in the Moon tell you?"

"Absolutely nothing," Jack replied, lunging for Daniel and grabbing him by the hand. Daniel tried to yank back his trapped hand, but Jack was stronger, even with an old frost-tipped shepherd's staff.

"Let me go! Jack, where are you taking me?" Daniel shouted, as his feet left the ground. Jack tucked him closer to his side, looking down at him with a serious expression on his face.

"To the North Pole," came the soft reply.

* * *

"So why am I here?" Vlad demanded, glaring at the spirit with the ash-toned skin. Currently he was tied down to a chair with Fearling shadows.

"The newborn was scared of his father and ran. The man attempted to enter the coordinates for the boy's, but the technology of your world doesn't work well with spiritual energy. He left behind a small band of ghosts who, thankfully, are still very confused as to their whereabouts. They can see our home, but not us, as we do not exist on the mortal plane, until believed in. You and the human girl-accidentally left behind-are the only ties the boy has to the world he comes from. MiM wants you to talk to him-no more, no less-but please, talk to the girl and persuade her to believe. She grows wearisome."

* * *

"Daniel," Jack said gently, after Wind dropped them onto the windowsill, "No matter what happens in North's workshop, whether it be good news or bad, you will never be alone. We are one family: seasonal spirits, MiM, Guardians, and perhaps even Mother Nature or Pitch may fall into that category, though Pitch would be more the stinky rotten banana peel you find under bed after a month."

Danny shuddered at the disturbing image.

"What I am saying," said Jack, after taking a deep breath. "is you don't have to keep running away. Tame your flight or fight instincts. You had friends and family to encourage your Center in the Other World; you have us here. Find your center, Daniel Spring, and you will know why you were chosen."

Daniel gave a silent nod, and Jack pushed open the window. A yell from below shouted that he'd seen them. Tooth's excited voice chirped a greeting to them, mixed with rapid fire orders to her mini fairies for teeth to be collected in Pittsburgh, London, and Louisville.

"What did you really tell MiM, Jack?" Daniel asked, as Wind swept them inside the workshop..

Jack touched Daniel's lips with an index finger and then with the same finger touched his heart. "I wasn't able to say anything," he admitted. "There is much I want to, but there is no need. Hey, watch this!"

Two ginger-tinted girls, deep in conversation, squealed in outrage as a snowball smacked each of them in the face. "Jack Frost! Daniel Spring! This means a snow war later," the auburn-haired girl declared, hands on hips looking up at the two boys sitting on the exposed beams that supported the heavy roof of North's workshop.

"Glad to oblige, Kate," Jack cheekily replied, earning a dirty look from the girl. The other girl was silent as stared up at spot next to the frost-haired hellion.

"Oh," Katherine murmured in realization. "You still can't see him."

"Who?" the other girl asked, only to gasp in shock as a warm whisper of wind crossed the back of her neck. "Daniel James Fenton, how many times have I told you not to do that?!"

Her brother laughed softly. She rubbed her eyes as he popped into visibility next to her. "Actually, Jazz, I'm the one she (he pointed at Katherine) called Daniel Spring. If you are here, where are Mom, Dad, Sam and Tucker?"

"This is the bad news, Snowflake, was warning you about, mate," E. Aster Bunnymund spoke up. He and the rest of the Guardians were studying the new lights that twinkled on the Globe near the North Pole.

"Phantom?"

Daniel Spring whirled around to face Ember, who was still in shock, but still ran and hugged him. "Are we ever glad to see you, babypop. Can you get us out of here?"

Daniel shook his head, then stared hard at the Fright Knight, who stared hard back at him. Was the ghostly paladin snickering at him?

Daniel glared at him. "Nice to see you too, Ember. How did you get here and how the heck can you three see me, but they can't?" He made a circle gesture indicating Ember, Jazz, and the Fright Knight, then jabbed his thumb in the direction of the other three ghosts.

* * *

**Okay, so the Man in the Moon did not let Jack speak from the heart, but told him everything he needed to know with two simple gestures. Two of the ghosts, you now know, are Ember and the Fright Knight, who can see him. The other three cannot; I haven't decided who they are yet, but press the little button below and tell me what you think should be done with them, Jazz, and Plasmius. The story of how Jazz came to be at the Pole will be told next chapter.**


	11. Silent One in the Moon

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I own the idea behind this series of oneshots and any OC's, but not the canon characters.

* * *

_This chapter details the agreement between MiM and Clockwork concerning Daniel's future and those of his family and friends. _

* * *

**Silent One in the Moon**

* * *

_Clockwork sent out the searching spell again, a faint beam of white light, that would seek out the missing half-ghost. It had been more than a year since whoever had been kidnapping the boy had seemed to vanish._

_Daniel had settled down and made good grades; his favorite subject was science-no brainer there. His parents were paranoid to the nth degree and actually hired his two best friends to be at his side day or night. At school, a teacher escorted him to all his classes._

_Everyone was afraid, especially every time the boy yawned. When his grades took a dive, due to his new-found ghostly activities, his parents and teachers came down harder on the boy._

_Casting a side-long glance at the boy's empty room, Clockwork knew that the parents were meeting with Sam, trying to pull the whole story out of her._

_A white beam exploded into the room; Clockwork instantly noticed it wasn't the spell he'd sent out. This was a living moonbeam, native to only one world._

_"What does your Guardian wish of the Master of Time?" he asked it._

**_In the language of the beings of light, the moonbeam answered him. Its Guardian wished to talk to him. Did he have a mirror-glass of some sort?_**

_"Yes," Clockwork answered, relieved to maybe find out what was going on with Phantom. So far, he'd managed to prevent most of the ghosts from detecting his absence. It had been only a few hours thus far._

_The mirror-glass was tall and oval, set in a frame of plain, unadorned, iron-frame work. The moonbeam shot against the glass, ricocheted off, then bounced around the room, before the portal depicting the Present sucked him in. Clockwork had no doubt that the moonbeam would eventually find its way back to its own world._

_A small man, strangely looking like the picture of the Wizard of Oz, in W.W. Denslow's original illustrations of Baum's book, smiled back at him._

**_Greetings, Man of Time._**

_"Greetings, Silent One," Clockwork replied in kind. "You have taken a child that has been placed in my charge. Where is he?"_

**_The boy was chosen long before he became one of your charges. Place your hand against the glass and I will show you what has become of him._**

_Clockwork did as the Silent One in the Moon asked and gasped when the mirror-glass rippled. The image changed showing a very confused Danny Phantom in his human half's pajamas waking up on the shores of a small forest pond being greeted by a white-haired boy with really pale skin and light blue eyes, and two girls._

**_The older boy is Jack Frost, the newest of my Guardians. He is the Spirit of Winter. The two girls you see are the Spirits of Autumn and Summer. They were chosen because Jack needed companionship. This has made him a stronger Guardian for it; his enemy was not able to use that as a leverage against him._**

_"What does this all have to do with Daniel?" Clockwork asked._

**_Daniel is an innocent who was chosen for the goodness of his heart. He is a young child, the Spirit of Springtime. The spell which brings him across the Veil between the Worlds has run its course._**

_"So you would leave a young half-ghost without recourse to his family, friends or memories, to wander a strange world with no idea what he's landed himself into?"_

**_No, there is another Guardian named Toothiana, you might call her the Tooth Fairy, who is able to restore his memories to him using those stored in his baby teeth. A special power was granted to me to allow this. _**

**_The boy, Daniel Fenton-Phantom, is dead to his old life. As a half-ghost, he lived in terror every day, afraid to ever fit in with the normal world. Afraid of what his own family would ever do if they should find out of his dual nature._**

_"Which twice now, they have proven in alternate time-lines they would be proud of him. You have tampered with a life that should have been left to run its course. The future is not yours to decree," Clockwork told him angrily._

**_Nor is it yours. You tamper with his life on a daily basis, influencing him in small ways even God Himself can barely see. The boy cannot remain in a half-state. I ask you to release the boy to me, as this is the life he is most used to._**

_"As the Spirit of Springtime, what will become of the boy?" Clockwork wanted to know._

**_He will be a spirit, invisible, inaudible, and untouchable to all until he is believed in, and then only the believer will be able to see, hear, or touch him. He will never be alone; the Seasonal Spirits will be a family for him. They have shown him what is required for survival and he has the Wind for transportation and company. Unlike the other spirits, Daniel needs no conduit for his powers. His ability to use light and dark as tools and weapons comes from within._**

_Clockwork looked over to the two Observants, who nodded in assent. "What say you?" he asked softly._

_"We have seen the results if the boy was removed from this world; it will be safe for all time. The dark version of himself will be as if he never was. His friends will thrive to their full potential; Daniel has been an inspiration to them both," one of the Observants stated._

_"I have also seen that he must be allowed some form of closure on his life. One trip, back and forth, across the Veil between the Worlds will be permitted for his family and friends. If anyone stays behind, that world will become their new home. The other half-ghost has already entered the Rift we placed in the Hinterlands of the Ghost Zone; it has closed behind him."_

_Clockwork thought about it, stroking his long-white beard; he morphed from an adult to an old man. "The portals show peace in the timelines. That much I can see ahead, so it is for the best. However, this belief system may not apply to his family and friends as they are from outside your dimensional norms."_

**_No, it will apply to them as well. No exceptions. Now as for Daniel..._**

_"We have foreseen this and have taken appropriate action," one of the Observants spoke up. "The boy shall retain all ghostly abilities he has developed thus far, with the exception of transformation between both halves and any future abilities he would have developed. His ice elemental core has also been removed. He will retain his ghost sense; his powers will be muted, but still accessible."_

_"He is full Spirit, as you call him. Clockwork, you will write him a letter explaining all this to Phantom," the other ordered._

**_This is advisable: one trip across the Void for the closure he will need, but one of those who knew him in both forms must remain behind. I will allow this._**

_"I will leave instructions for Jasmine," Clockwork answered. "She will be the best choice to keep Daniel's feet on the ground. You will provide a place for her to live and a means for her support. I will arrange all things for the Fentons'. None will know of their coming or going."_

_"What of their daughter? The Fentons will surely know of her absence, as they did their son's," an Observant pointed out._

_"I will personally visit them in the aftermath of their grief and explain everything," Clockwork decided._

_"Then the Observant Council is in agreement," both Observants said in unison._

**_As am I._**

_"Let it be so," Clockwork agreed, watching the Man in the Moon smile brightly, then vanish from the mirror-glass. Idly winding his time staff, he murmured softly, "Okay, Jasmine, you can wake up now."_

Jazz's eyes snapped open, the ice cold of the snowball she'd been hit with in the face, seeping into her skin. "A snowball indoors is not logical," she sputtered, spitting snow out of her mouth. Five minutes later, she was hugging the little brother she'd thought she would never see again.

"Never go away ever again," she whispered.


	12. Tears

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

**Tears**

* * *

"JACK!" Maddie's anguished cry echoed throughout the house. It had been several weeks since their return and the subsequent notice of Jasmine's absence. The ghost who had visited them, explained in a very calm voice what had happened and the importance of their daughter to their son.

"What is it, Maddie?" he called back, afraid that she'd found it. Especially, after all the effort he'd taken to hide it.

"I found a note from Danny," came the reply, followed by running footsteps. Maddie came flying down the stairs. "Here, read it."

Jack took the paper she'd thrust into his hands, and read the shaky illegible scrawl of his son.

_Dear Mom and Dad:_

_If you're reading this, then praise MIM! It worked; Jazz's idea worked!_

_I'm so sorry I kept so many secrets from you. By now, I'm sure Clockwork's visited you and told you everything that's been going on and happened. I hate MIM for taking me away from you, but I never realized how important or special I was to those around me._

_My new mother, Mother Nature, tells me that I am to live in the Warren with E. Aster Bunnymund, the Guardian of Hope. (Yeah, the Easter Bunny is real.) I'm not allowed to dwell on what happened-Jazz's new rule #6-so I'll keep the notes brief._

_First off, Mom will have found the note on my nightstand or Jazz's dresser, I suppose. Four jewels of various shades of blood will be lined up in the corners forming a square around it. (Jazz's weirdness again.) Those jewels will allow you to return to the world I now reside in as the Spirit of Spring._

_North has extended an invitation to both you and Mom to come and reside forever in Santoff Clausen. (Personally, I think he want to bum ideas off you guys and Vlad.)_

_Yeah, Vlad ended up here too. The ruling council of ghosts (Observants) decided he was a danger to the timelines and found it better to make him an apprentice boogeyman. (snicker)_

Here, Jack noted, the writing style switched to his daughter's distinctive flowery cursive.

_Sorry, Jazz, here. If I let Danny keep writing this letter, he'll let the cat out of the bag and ramble on and on. So, I'll let you guys get caught up to date with a few facts:_

_You left five ghosts behind. One of whom was the Spirit of Halloween, disguised as a lowly ghost paladin. (aka The Fright Knight). Rune and Helen were really glad when he showed up, but Bunnymund fled, with Jack exchanging tree-frog grins with the Sandman. (Don't want to know what prank they pulled. Katharine says she'll tell me about it later.)_

_The five ghosts are, as follows:_

The Fright Knight

Ember

Sidney Pointdexter

Princess Dorathea

Technus

Technus, Princess Dora, and Sidney could not see Danny at first. You **literally** have to **believe **in the Spirit of Spring, in order to see Danny. Rune of the Lanterns, the Death Guide, took charge and spoke with the five of them. Technus and Princess Dora elected to move on to where the next world was, but Sidney chose to remain, along with Ember. The Fright Knight revealed himself to be the Spirit of Halloween and chased his brother all over the Workshop with shadowy flames and swinging his sword around, scaring the living daylights out of the Yetis.

One other thing. It really scared Danny, Dad, when you saw him on the back porch, because grownups normally don't believe in spirits or the Guardians. He says he's sorry for running away like that. Jack says he's working on it; I think Pitch would better suited for the job and would probably get better results. The Guardians underestimate the Boogeyman; he's a great role model for children today.

I gave up my chance to return to our world. That's what the gems are for. One for you, Sam, Tucker, and Mom. They will vanish once you cross over and there will no more "crossing the bar" once used.

Love you and hope to see you soon,

Jazz and Danny

Jazz and **Daniel (Get my name right, Jazz!)**

Jack chuckled at his kids' antics and folded the letter. Looking at his wife, whose eyes were filled with tears, he sighed and then pulled her close. "I want you to invite the Mansons and Foleys over to dinner tonight," he whispered. "Sam and Tucker would want to know about this; Danny was their best friend."

"Is," Maddie firmly told him. "I will make the call."


	13. Dream

Spring

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Don't own ROTG or DP.

* * *

_Cyber cookies and lemonade if you can identify what Danny's new gift is._

* * *

**Dream**

* * *

"Why do you not talk to your precious Sandman about the dream?" the Spirit of Halloween asked, sitting down in a wing back checkered print chair with a cup of hot cocoa in his hands. "Even the Spirit of Fear could help explain it better than I ever could."

"It doesn't concern them," Daniel snapped, snagging a cookie from the plate an elf offered. He bit into it and made a face. "Ugh! Does everything have to taste like peppermint around here?"

"You are in North's workshop," Jack reminded him from the rafters above.

"Yeah, yeah," Daniel said dismissively, waving him off.

"Alright, Phantom, tell me of this dream of yours," Fright Knight, said, taking a sip from the mug in his hands.

"In the dream, my mom-not Mother Nature, Jack-gave me this beautiful rose flower, bright as a drop of blood freshly oxygenated, and it burned me. Also I was forced to leave my home and my family. There were some stuff from Greek myths, my mom crying and Jazz pleading, an island full of apple trees and the dream ended with Sidney saying something about 'the Avalonia helping to create some sort of barrier' and my dad confronting my mom about what she did."

The Spirit of Halloween leaned back and took another sip of hot cocoa. Jack leaned down from the rafters to see what the ghostly paladin would say.

"You're going to fall," the Fright Knight said, without looking up.

"Will not," Jack retorted, but moved backwards into a safer position.

The Fright Knight turned bright yellow eyes onto the green-clad boy in front of him. "Phantom, the dream you had was of an alternate world. The Avalonia, to that world, is yourself; cursed to never find happiness among the mortals, no matter how many times you are reincarnated among them. The blood blossom well sees to that."

"Can I send aid to myself on that world?" Daniel asked curiously.

"No," the Fright Knight replied. "Those events will work themselves out. You have no need to fear."

"Am I missing something?" Pitch asked, joining them by the fire.

"No," Daniel answered, taking another bite of his peppermint cookie. "Really, North needs to lay off the peppermint."

"Agreed," Pitch said, stretching out his feet to take in the warmth of the fire.

"So what's new?" Daniel asked him.

"The nutjob up in the moon is being mysterious again," Pitch muttered. "He's up to something and I don't like it."

"So what else is new?" the Fright Knight retorted, taking another sip of his cocoa.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I'm currently learning the role of the folklorist from travelling the globe with Katharine. Danny's going to move into the Warren as soon as Bunnymund can finish setting up a place for him. Mother Nature is also soon to arrive to properly send him into hibernation._

_I have no idea if Mom and Dad received our letter. It's been a few weeks since we were able to slip it across the Void. Perhaps they are still discussing it. _

_Ember, Sidney, and the Fright Knight have shown no desire to leave Santoff Clausen, though the Fright Knight has his two siblings to run and plan things for him. Bunnymund is still avoiding him like the plague and North just sighs._

_AND DANNY SERIOUSLY LOOKS LIKE A FREAKING HUMMINGBIRD! I, seriously, **have** to talk to North about getting my little brother a new wardrobe._

_Sincerely,_

_Jazz Fenton_


End file.
